Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Pentagon blocks Internet

From: Military.com
To Foreign Press Foundation: fpf@chello.nl
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_----------=_112971733210270"
Subject: THE EARLY BRIEF - INTERNET
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

HOTMAIL ACCOUNT NOT WORKING? OR YAHOO!? - IT’S NOT A GLITCH WITH THE COMPUTER CONNECTION.

US - MILITARY.COM - On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps blocked all access to commercial e-mail services, such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, America Online and Google, from overseas government computers.

And not just at office workstations.

The block includes access to e-mail services from computers at base libraries and liberty centers that are connected to an official government network.

“This concerns us, because so many of our patrons won’t be able to access their e-mail, and many come to the library to do just that,” said Ciro Giordano, supervisory librarian at Naval Support Activity Naples, Italy.

But access to such services leaves the unclassified government network too susceptible to hackers and computer viruses, said Neal Miller, a senior plans and policy manager with Naval Network Warfare Command in Norfolk, Va.

“By going through some of the commercial Web-based e-mail accounts, it opens up vulnerabilities to government-run networks and presents too high [of a] risk to be acceptable,” Miller said.

The policy covers sailors, Marines and DOD employees and contractors using Navy Department computers, and applies to those downrange who operate on Navy computer systems.

Navy and Marine Corps personnel attached to Army, Air Force or joint combatant commands fall under those services’ policies.

Margaret McBride, spokeswoman for the Army’s Chief Information Officer, said the Army has no similar restrictions on commercial e-mail access and no current plans to block those sites.

The Air Force did not respond in time for this edition.

The policy blocks viewers from accessing commercial e-mail accounts while using a government computer, but does not prevent them from using their .mil accounts to send e-mail to, or receive e-mail from, those who use commercial e-mail accounts.

People still can take care of personal business using their unclassified work e-mail accounts, within reason, and only if work schedules permit. The Navy assigns all sailors and Marines an official, unclassified e-mail address, which they can use to communicate with family and friends.

“There’s no substitute for sound judgment,” Miller said.

The block will not stop users from using commercial search engines, Miller said.

People can still pay car insurance, order contact lenses, or e-mail mom and dad from government computers — which are subject to monitoring — but they cannot visit hate group Web sites, view pornography, or run their own business, he said citing a few examples.

The block was effective Oct. 12 for computers on ships and most of the computers using the Navy-Marine Corps intranet servers in the United States.

There are some Navy and Marine Corps bases where Morale, Welfare and Recreation operates its own servers or networks and won’t be affected by the blockage, Miller said.

OTHER BASES — SUCH AS NAPLES — DON’T HAVE THAT LUXURY.

While MWR is looking for options, such as its own network, until Tuesday it was the library’s government-connected network that provided a crucial service for those without private access to computers, such as the single sailors living in the barracks or those in transit and staying at base hotels, librarian Lucinda Simpson said.

And it includes dependents like Patricia Rovito, 40, who after 10 months in Italy only recently got her home telephone turned on, let alone having Internet access.

“This is the only way I can check my e-mail,” she said, sitting at a library computer. “This is going to be a pretty sizable hit to morale. I understand the Navy has its concerns, but this is not going to be favorably accepted.”

[enditem] - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dara5

Blaming Internet for Jihad, bombings & resistance - Url.: http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=13661&s2=14

Google the latest on Internet & Censorship - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cxw2j

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

PENTAGON BLOCKING INTERNET MAKES MORONS!

* *The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism.

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

-0-

Corruption tarnishes Holland's image

FPF: Dutch state broadcasting corporation NCRV did a random poll* via the programme 'Stand.nl' on the 27th of July 2001. The question was: 'Is The Netherlands corrupt'? - Yes or No?

'NO'! SAID 18 PERCENT, BUT THE OTHER EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT AGREED...

The above is a bit stronger than the story here below, however still showing that the thieves steal still more and more and: "Corruption tarnishes Holland's image". Quote: "The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years." Some of the reasons why, are given in the links below.

AMSTERDAM — 19 October 2005 - The long-running Bouwfraude (corruption) or construction industry fraud in the Netherlands continues to damage the image of the Lowlands. The Netherlands is listed in 11th place in annual Corruption Perceptions Index survey of 159 countries by Berlin-based NGO Transparency International.* The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years. In 2002 and 2003, the Netherlands stood in 7th place. Last year, it was 10th.

Professor Hans van Doelder, the contact person in the Netherlands for the Index, said the decline in the ranking was "not an advertisement for the Netherlands". He pointed to the scandal of large-scale fraud in the construction industry as one of the main reasons for the poor showing of the Netherlands.

The cleanest rating for the least corruption goes to Iceland, which nudged Finland out of the top rating it has enjoyed over past years, said the anti-corruption watchdog. Both Finland and New Zealand were tied at second place for having low levels of public corruption, the report said.

Bangladesh and Chad were given the worst rating in the index, a joint 158th place, with Haiti, Myanmar and Turkmenistan tied with the second worst public corruption ratings. Nordic countries again topped the index with low levels of public sector corruption. Denmark was in 4th place, followed by Sweden (6th) and Norway (8th).

Anglophone countries also scored well with Australia in 9th place, Britain (11th), Canada (14th) and the United States ranked 17th. Germany came in 16th place, just ahead of the US and France (18th).

Singapore has the lowest corruption rate in Asia putting it in 5th place, followed by Hong Kong (15th), Japan (21st), Taiwan (32nd) and South Korea (40th). Asian countries with higher corruption perception levels were China in 78th place, India (88th), Vietnam (107th) and Indonesia at 137th place.

In the Arab world, Oman had the lowest corruption rating putting it at 28th place (tied with Israel), followed by the United Arab Emirates (30th), Qatar (32nd), Bahrain (36th) and Jordan (37th).

The worst ranked Arab country was Iraq [FPF: the US occupying Iraq steals $billions) at a joint 137th place with other countries including Ethiopia and Cameroon.*

Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries by the extent to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is based on 16 surveys carried out by 10 polling institutes among business people and analysts from around the world.

TI DEFINES STATE CORRUPTION AS "THE ABUSE OF PUBLIC OFFICE FOR PRIVATE GAIN".

"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," said TI Chairman Peter Eigen, adding: "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery." Eigen underlined that the five countries which ranked worst on the TI index are among the poorest nations in the world.

TI says a further development hindrance is that foreign investment is lower in countries perceived to be corrupt. Better government and less corruption allows countries to reap "a development dividend", says a World Bank* report quoted in the index.

An increase in perceived corruption between 2004 and 2005 has been measured in countries such as Costa Rica, Gabon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Seychelles and Sri Lanka, said TI. Improvements with corruption in decline have been seen in Estonia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazahkstan, Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan and Turkey, the index showed.

"Wealth is not a prerequisite for successful control of corruption," said the report, adding this was shown by countries such as Bulgaria, Estonia, and Colombia which have seen significant falls in the corruption perceptions over the past decade.

Transparency International urges a series of actions to reduce corruption.

Lower income countries should:

- Increase resources and political will for anti-corruption efforts.

- Enable greater public access to information about budgets, revenue and expenditure.

Higher income countries should:

- Combine increased aid with support for recipient-led reforms.

- Reduce tied aid which limits local opportunities and ownership of aid programmes.

Transparency International was founded in 1993 and has chapters in 90 countries. Its headquarters is in Berlin.

[enditem] - Url.: Url.: http://tinyurl.com/af5jg

Examples of the many countries corrupted and massacred by 'their' IMF and World Bank - Url.: http://www.vheadline.net/readnews.asp?id=34686]

Transparency International - Corruption Report 2005 - Url.: http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/

The Netherlands is a neocon vazal state - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/aln7f

Poll figures on web site NCRV - in understandable Dutch - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ugrh

For those who can read Dutch - concerns Bouwfraude - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bgjg3

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

MAIN$TREAM MEDIA MAKE MORONS!

* *The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism. And listening to the deafening silence by all those so called 'leaders' manifesting themselves as war criminals: they should be jailed!

* OUR FUTURE: APOCALYPSE NOW AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD - THE MOST CHILLING STORY ON WHY ALL THIS HAPPENS AND WHO DOES IT - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/ax5zt

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7

* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9

* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

* In Indonesia they steal millions, making and 'fighting' their own terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cq36f

* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq

* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

* Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5k7vx

* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

-0-

Corruption tarnishes Holland's image

FPF: Dutch state broadcasting corporation NCRV did a random poll* via the programme 'Stand.nl' on the 27th of July 2001. The question was: 'Is The Netherlands corrupt'? - Yes or No?

'NO'! SAID 18 PERCENT, BUT THE OTHER EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT AGREED...

The above is a bit stronger than the story here below, however still showing that the thieves steal still more and more and: "Corruption tarnishes Holland's image". Quote: "The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years." Some of the reasons why, are given in the links below.

AMSTERDAM — 19 October 2005 - The long-running Bouwfraude (corruption) or construction industry fraud in the Netherlands continues to damage the image of the Lowlands. The Netherlands is listed in 11th place in annual Corruption Perceptions Index survey of 159 countries by Berlin-based NGO Transparency International.* The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years. In 2002 and 2003, the Netherlands stood in 7th place. Last year, it was 10th.

Professor Hans van Doelder, the contact person in the Netherlands for the Index, said the decline in the ranking was "not an advertisement for the Netherlands". He pointed to the scandal of large-scale fraud in the construction industry as one of the main reasons for the poor showing of the Netherlands.

The cleanest rating for the least corruption goes to Iceland, which nudged Finland out of the top rating it has enjoyed over past years, said the anti-corruption watchdog. Both Finland and New Zealand were tied at second place for having low levels of public corruption, the report said.

Bangladesh and Chad were given the worst rating in the index, a joint 158th place, with Haiti, Myanmar and Turkmenistan tied with the second worst public corruption ratings. Nordic countries again topped the index with low levels of public sector corruption. Denmark was in 4th place, followed by Sweden (6th) and Norway (8th).

Anglophone countries also scored well with Australia in 9th place, Britain (11th), Canada (14th) and the United States ranked 17th. Germany came in 16th place, just ahead of the US and France (18th).

Singapore has the lowest corruption rate in Asia putting it in 5th place, followed by Hong Kong (15th), Japan (21st), Taiwan (32nd) and South Korea (40th). Asian countries with higher corruption perception levels were China in 78th place, India (88th), Vietnam (107th) and Indonesia at 137th place.

In the Arab world, Oman had the lowest corruption rating putting it at 28th place (tied with Israel), followed by the United Arab Emirates (30th), Qatar (32nd), Bahrain (36th) and Jordan (37th).

The worst ranked Arab country was Iraq [FPF: the US occupying Iraq steals $billions) at a joint 137th place with other countries including Ethiopia and Cameroon.*

Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries by the extent to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is based on 16 surveys carried out by 10 polling institutes among business people and analysts from around the world.

TI DEFINES STATE CORRUPTION AS "THE ABUSE OF PUBLIC OFFICE FOR PRIVATE GAIN".

"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," said TI Chairman Peter Eigen, adding: "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery." Eigen underlined that the five countries which ranked worst on the TI index are among the poorest nations in the world.

TI says a further development hindrance is that foreign investment is lower in countries perceived to be corrupt. Better government and less corruption allows countries to reap "a development dividend", says a World Bank* report quoted in the index.

An increase in perceived corruption between 2004 and 2005 has been measured in countries such as Costa Rica, Gabon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Seychelles and Sri Lanka, said TI. Improvements with corruption in decline have been seen in Estonia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazahkstan, Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan and Turkey, the index showed.

"Wealth is not a prerequisite for successful control of corruption," said the report, adding this was shown by countries such as Bulgaria, Estonia, and Colombia which have seen significant falls in the corruption perceptions over the past decade.

Transparency International urges a series of actions to reduce corruption.

Lower income countries should:

- Increase resources and political will for anti-corruption efforts.

- Enable greater public access to information about budgets, revenue and expenditure.

Higher income countries should:

- Combine increased aid with support for recipient-led reforms.

- Reduce tied aid which limits local opportunities and ownership of aid programmes.

Transparency International was founded in 1993 and has chapters in 90 countries. Its headquarters is in Berlin.

[enditem] - Url.: Url.: http://tinyurl.com/af5jg

Examples of the many countries corrupted and massacred by 'their' IMF and World Bank - Url.: http://www.vheadline.net/readnews.asp?id=34686]

Transparency International - Corruption Report 2005 - Url.: http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/

The Netherlands is a neocon vazal state - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/aln7f

Poll figures on web site NCRV - in understandable Dutch - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ugrh

For those who can read Dutch - concerns Bouwfraude - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bgjg3

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

MAIN$TREAM MEDIA MAKE MORONS!

* *The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism. And listening to the deafening silence by all those so called 'leaders' manifesting themselves as war criminals: they should be jailed!

* OUR FUTURE: APOCALYPSE NOW AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD - THE MOST CHILLING STORY ON WHY ALL THIS HAPPENS AND WHO DOES IT - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/ax5zt

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7

* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9

* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

* In Indonesia they steal millions, making and 'fighting' their own terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cq36f

* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq

* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

* Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5k7vx

* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

-0-











Corruption tarnishes Holland's image

FPF: Dutch state broadcasting corporation NCRV did a random poll* via the programme 'Stand.nl' on the 27th of July 2001. The question was: 'Is The Netherlands corrupt'? - Yes or No?

'NO'! SAID 18 PERCENT, BUT THE OTHER EIGHTY-TWO PERCENT AGREED...

The above is a bit stronger than the story here below, however still showing that the thieves steal still more and more and: "Corruption tarnishes Holland's image". Quote: "The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years." Some of the reasons why, are given in the links below.

AMSTERDAM — 19 October 2005 - The long-running Bouwfraude (corruption) or construction industry fraud in the Netherlands continues to damage the image of the Lowlands. The Netherlands is listed in 11th place in annual Corruption Perceptions Index survey of 159 countries by Berlin-based NGO Transparency International.* The Dutch ranking in the 2005 Index is the country's lowest score in the last 10 years. In 2002 and 2003, the Netherlands stood in 7th place. Last year, it was 10th.

Professor Hans van Doelder, the contact person in the Netherlands for the Index, said the decline in the ranking was "not an advertisement for the Netherlands". He pointed to the scandal of large-scale fraud in the construction industry as one of the main reasons for the poor showing of the Netherlands.

The cleanest rating for the least corruption goes to Iceland, which nudged Finland out of the top rating it has enjoyed over past years, said the anti-corruption watchdog. Both Finland and New Zealand were tied at second place for having low levels of public corruption, the report said.

Bangladesh and Chad were given the worst rating in the index, a joint 158th place, with Haiti, Myanmar and Turkmenistan tied with the second worst public corruption ratings. Nordic countries again topped the index with low levels of public sector corruption. Denmark was in 4th place, followed by Sweden (6th) and Norway (8th).

Anglophone countries also scored well with Australia in 9th place, Britain (11th), Canada (14th) and the United States ranked 17th. Germany came in 16th place, just ahead of the US and France (18th).

Singapore has the lowest corruption rate in Asia putting it in 5th place, followed by Hong Kong (15th), Japan (21st), Taiwan (32nd) and South Korea (40th). Asian countries with higher corruption perception levels were China in 78th place, India (88th), Vietnam (107th) and Indonesia at 137th place.

In the Arab world, Oman had the lowest corruption rating putting it at 28th place (tied with Israel), followed by the United Arab Emirates (30th), Qatar (32nd), Bahrain (36th) and Jordan (37th).

The worst ranked Arab country was Iraq [FPF: the US occupying Iraq steals $billions) at a joint 137th place with other countries including Ethiopia and Cameroon.*

Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries by the extent to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is based on 16 surveys carried out by 10 polling institutes among business people and analysts from around the world.

TI DEFINES STATE CORRUPTION AS "THE ABUSE OF PUBLIC OFFICE FOR PRIVATE GAIN".

"Corruption is a major cause of poverty as well as a barrier to overcoming it," said TI Chairman Peter Eigen, adding: "The two scourges feed off each other, locking their populations in a cycle of misery." Eigen underlined that the five countries which ranked worst on the TI index are among the poorest nations in the world.

TI says a further development hindrance is that foreign investment is lower in countries perceived to be corrupt. Better government and less corruption allows countries to reap "a development dividend", says a World Bank* report quoted in the index.

An increase in perceived corruption between 2004 and 2005 has been measured in countries such as Costa Rica, Gabon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Seychelles and Sri Lanka, said TI. Improvements with corruption in decline have been seen in Estonia, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Kazahkstan, Nigeria, Qatar, Taiwan and Turkey, the index showed.

"Wealth is not a prerequisite for successful control of corruption," said the report, adding this was shown by countries such as Bulgaria, Estonia, and Colombia which have seen significant falls in the corruption perceptions over the past decade.

Transparency International urges a series of actions to reduce corruption.

Lower income countries should:

- Increase resources and political will for anti-corruption efforts.

- Enable greater public access to information about budgets, revenue and expenditure.

Higher income countries should:

- Combine increased aid with support for recipient-led reforms.

- Reduce tied aid which limits local opportunities and ownership of aid programmes.

Transparency International was founded in 1993 and has chapters in 90 countries. Its headquarters is in Berlin.

[enditem] - Url.: Url.: http://tinyurl.com/af5jg

Examples of the many countries corrupted and massacred by 'their' IMF and World Bank - Url.: http://www.vheadline.net/readnews.asp?id=34686]

Transparency International - Corruption Report 2005 - Url.: http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/

The Netherlands is a neocon vazal state - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/aln7f

Poll figures on web site NCRV - in understandable Dutch - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7ugrh

For those who can read Dutch - concerns Bouwfraude - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bgjg3

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

MAIN$TREAM MEDIA MAKE MORONS!

* *The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism. And listening to the deafening silence by all those so called 'leaders' manifesting themselves as war criminals: they should be jailed!

* OUR FUTURE: APOCALYPSE NOW AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD - THE MOST CHILLING STORY ON WHY ALL THIS HAPPENS AND WHO DOES IT - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/ax5zt

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7

* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9

* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

* In Indonesia they steal millions, making and 'fighting' their own terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cq36f

* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq

* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

* Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5k7vx

* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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The Mindless American: A Tragedy In The Making

By Doug Soderstrom

17 October, 2005 - Countercurrents.org - As a result of nine-eleven’s jarring impact upon our nation, journalists have discovered a near paranoid rise in retaliation against individuals attempting to expose governmental malfeasance. Increasingly government officials have begun punishing individuals for nothing more than reasoned attempts to inform the American public concerning:

How the military has systematically abused (tortured) foreign detainees; How the government intentionally withheld evidence suggesting that an attack upon the United States by Al Qaeda had been eminent;

How the military has begun to wage war upon soldiers who, in good conscience, have come to believe that it is wrong for them to kill in a war that, according to international law, is illegal, one that, the reasons for going to war, were fabricated by the President of the United States;

US: SIXTY YEARS OF ASSASSINATIONS

How the United States has a sixty-year history (1945- 2005) of assassinating foreign leaders who have chosen not to support the government’s foreign policy goals, initiating the overthrow of duly-elected foreign democracies, while simultaneously supporting brutal authoritarian dictatorships all in order to fill the coffers of America’s military-industrial complex, an egregious imperialistic force with but one goal: To take command of the world economy.

As a result, many of these individuals have been incarcerated, accused of being a traitor, of having sided with the enemy, told that their career will be destroyed, and threatened with extended imprisonment. Accordingly, on September 21, 2005, U.S. immigration officials banned Robert Fisk, an internationally renowned British journalist, on his way to deliver a speech in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from entering the United States of America due to incisive criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war.

No doubt such a scenario has, and is, being repeated many times over in our country. A rather sad fact for a president who has chosen to make such a big deal about the oft-quoted ideals of “freedom and democracy!”

PEOPLE WHO SEEM NOT TO CARE

But even more shameful is the fact that there are people who seem not to care that such things are taking place in our country; a rather ignorant crowd of jingoes more comfortable choosing to sit back pretending that everything will be just fine, a people with apparently little regard for the facts. As a behavioral scientist, I am grieved at what appears to be a near pandemic of disinterest in what is happening to our country.

Given the election of George Walker Bush as our president, our country made it quite clear that it is pleased to have as its president a scoundrel, a true terrorist, one more than willing to bully the rest of the world, as opposed to having chosen a real man, one that humanity might embrace as a man of true character (someone like Jimmy Carter), an individual committed to doing what is best for the world (rather than what is most profitable for those running the petrol, armament, pharmaceutical, and construction industries), one with a desire to do what must be done in order to create a more humane world, one of peace, justice, and love.

Although we claim to be a Christian nation, having chosen George Walker Bush to be the leader of our nation is a scandal beyond belief, one that mocks the very name of one whose life embodies that which we have been said to believe.

However, now that I am well into my seventh decade of life and very near retirement, I have come to the conclusion that the world basically sucks, that there are few who seem to have the investigative courage to take a good hard look at things that, if discovered, would no doubt destroy one’s image of a land that can do no wrong, one that they believe has somehow received the eternal blessing of God.

SO I MUST ASK: HOW IS IT THAT WE HAVE BECOME SUCH A MINDLESS NATION, A SOCIETY POPULATED BY DEADHEADS, FOLKS WHO SEEM TO HAVE LITTLE DESIRE TO LOOK BEYOND THE THINLY-VENEERED SURFACE OF LIFE?

As a behavioral scientist, it appears that a vast share of folks in our nation have chosen to relinquish a quality no doubt essential to authentic human life….. an existential responsibility to think for themselves, an ontological need to discount the petty concerns that drive the minds of those directed by triviality. It seems that such individuals have become so fantastically preoccupied with, essentially enamored by, the norm of what others think, they have effectively relinquished, through a process of cognitive foreclosure, the capacity to think for themselves.

Having become so extremely alienated from the core of their own being, they have little choice but to follow the crowd’s madding need to forge a symbiotic attachment to, in essence relationship with, a society, that for all practical purposes has become the basis of their own identity, the bedrock of their very being. Having done so, the image they have forged for themselves (who they believe themselves to be) has become every bit as fabricated, every bit as disconnected from reality, as their image of society.

So in wanting to have at their disposal a more a positive image of themselves, they have been left with little choice but to construct a glorified image of society; an image of what they wish society would have been rather than what it has, in fact, turned out to be. Something like having chosen to have built an ego-incased frame constructed upon the shifting sands of inane social rumor and outright public lies…… truly a flight of fancy bordering on the absurd!

EFFORTS TO CONQUER THE WORLD

Very few would disagree with the proposition that in Hitler’s Germany there was a determined effort to brainwash the people so they might support Mein Fuhrer’s efforts to conquer the world. However, what if one were to suggest that much the same is occurring in the United States of America, that there has been a determined effort through the socializing influence of our schools, the government, the mass media, the churches we attend, even that of our own parents, to pressure us into believing (just as Hitler) that our country has received the blessing of God, and because of this, we therefore have not only the right, but more importantly, through the use of military weapons, a divine responsibility to see that the world acquiesces to our needs and expectations. Just as Hitler in the 1930’s prepared his countrymen to accept the authoritarian control of the Nazi government, much the same may well be occurring in the United States.

Just as Hitler indoctrinated his people to believe that Germany had the right to conquer the world, George Walker Bush “in the name of freedom and democracy” may well be doing the same (preparing the American people to support his administration’s imperialistic drive to dominate the world).

Behaviorally, it is clear that citizens, from cradle to grave, are primed to conform to the dictates of those in power, instructed never to question the validity of what those who would like to take control of our lives have to say. Most Americans have no idea; that what we are fed by the news media (televised and paper-print news) is nothing more than a portrayal of what powerful corporations (those who pay the salaries of those who run mass media) want us to believe, that what happens to pass as education is as often as not mere propaganda (e.g. that Americans are the good guys and their enemies are, without exception, always the bad guys), that what we learn in church may have very little or nothing to do with the truth, that what our parents teach us may be nothing more than an accumulation of their own personal biases…… no doubt a rather subtle modification of what they were taught by their parents.

AND THROUGH SUCH A PROCESS, GOVERNMENTS AND NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD WIELD CONTROL AS TO WHAT THEIR CITIZENS, BELIEVE, VALUE, AND DO.

And, of course, in our own society, the primary way most of us are controlled, the way the vast majority of us are forced “to tow the line,” is through the ominous threat of being fired. Something like this: If you are interested in keeping your career on track, that you would like to keep your job, then you ought to consider the following in order to assure your employer that you deserve the right to keep your job; get married and have a couple of kids, become a member of a social club (such as the Lions Club, the Kiwanis Club, or the Rotarians), be a good capitalist, be a patriotic citizen who loves his country, and make sure that you attend a local church so that everybody will know that you believe in God almighty. However, if, for whatever reason, you decide that you would like to become a rebel, that you would like to begin thinking for yourself, then you’d better brace yourself for trouble, because there is a reasonable likelihood that you will be fired!

You see, in America, there is a rule of thumb concerning the working world which basically says that those who do what they are told to do are likely to keep their jobs, whereas those who tend to think for themselves, tend to buck the system, (tend not to do what they have been told to do) end up jobless, powerless, and left to fend for themselves on the mean streets of society.

But why? Why does such a thing occur? Why would America the beautiful, land of the free, do such a horrible thing to its own citizens? The answer is quite simple: Knowing that knowledge is power; the secret is control, controlling the out flow of information, making sure that citizens know no more than they “are supposed to know,” making sure that they remain relatively uninformed, making sure that they are given “just enough” that they will go along with, peacefully accept, the premise that they are well informed, that they have a good idea of what is going on. It is necessary then that the government keep the people from learning the truth.

KEEP THEM FROM EVEN WANTING TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Put the fear of God into them to the extent that they will never question what they have been told to believe. You see, those in power may say that they want their citizens to be educated, to be well informed as to what is going on, however, such is simply not the case. Ask yourself this question: What happens to those of us (teachers, preachers, philosophers, writers, journalists) who do not “tow the line,” those intent upon proposing alternate ways of looking at the world? Look at what happened to Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, even Socrates. I mean, really now, who among us wants to be crucified, assassinated, forced to drink hemlock……. wants to risk the possibility of losing one’s job, the ability to put food on the table for one’s family?

However, just in case you do not believe me, try this on for size…… the next time you go to work tell the boss that you are an infidel (that you have grown up and no longer believe in God), that you have decided to become a socialist (that capitalism essentially sucks), that you no longer give a shit about your country (that you have decided to become a rebel, an actively-participating antiwar protestor), and then see what happens. Do you get the point?

There are many (Robert Fisk, Cindy Sheehan, Sybil Edmunds, Bunnatine Greenhouse, Coleen Rowley, Captain Ian Fishback, Col. Anthony Shaffer, Kevin Benderman, Jeremy Hinzman, Brandon Hughey, Camilo Mejia, among others) who have illustrated the courage to risk their jobs, their careers, their reputations, their marriages, their wealth, imprisonment, and, in some cases, even that of their own sanity.

MAKE A STAND FOR THAT WHICH IS RIGHT

But the sad fact is that for every hero out there, there are literally thousands of citizens (each who no doubt consider themselves to be conscientious, hard-working individuals who have a sincere belief in God and a loyal commitment to their country) who yet, for whatever reason, detest men and woman such as these who have shown the moral gumption to put their lives on the line for no other reason than to make a stand for that which is right, a willingness to tell anyone, everyone who is willing to listen, that it is a far better thing for one to have sacrificed his own life so that others might see, than to have chosen to remain silent ensuring the blind pretense that all is well, that there is nothing to worry about, that Big Brother will no doubt take good care of us as long as we simply keep our mouths shut and do exactly as we are told.

Doug Soderstrom

POSTSCRIPT: THE MOST DANGEROUS THING ONE CAN DO IS TO TELL THE TRUTH…… THE SENTENCE FOR WHICH, ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, IS ALWAYS DEATH!

Or. Story at Url.: http://www.countercurrents.org/us-soderstrom171005.htm

Fwd. in full agreement with Doug Soderstrom by:

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

MAIN$TREAM MEDIA MAKE MORONS!

* *The Dutch author this far has worked abroad for international media for more than 4 decades, as a fully independent foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism.

* OUR FUTURE: APOCALYPSE NOW AND THE BRAVE NEW WORLD - THE MOST CHILLING STORY ON WHY ALL THIS HAPPENS AND WHO DOES IT - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/ax5zt

* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi(It.) Balkenende(NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.:http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

* MSNBC - Poll: Ninety-four (94) percent believes that George Bush and the neocon media mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* ''The Lancet'' and the ''Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health'' report: ''Over 100.000 killed in the illegal Iraq war''-Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5gys7

* Bush interview. ABC: No WMD's but many killed: "It was worth it" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6bal9

* Former Secr. of State Madeleine Albright in her comment on half a million dead children in Iraq: "We think it's worth it" On CBS 60' Minutes - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2vmc8

* The must-see three-part BBC Documentary, "The Power of Nightmares," puts it bluntly: "Al-Qaeda is a (neocon) myth." - See Url.: http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

* In Indonesia they steal millions, making and 'fighting' their own terror - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cq36f

* Wayne Madsen: ''What has Israel to do with 9/11?'' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bj754 - 'American neocons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/b5vsb - The US Federal Reserve and the private banks owning it - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/d3ntq

* Are their Corporate News Media Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? - Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave, or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

* Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c

* Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5k7vx

* American car magnate Henry Ford investigated 85 years ago the global problem - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/2xz35

* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

* The World Can't Wait! - Drive out the neocons and their 'Bush Regime' - Mobilize for November 2, 2005! - Url.: http://www.worldcantwait.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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